Encounter with Soyinka: Nobody can deny me of my Nigerianness – Igboanugo

Veteran journalist and Publisher of Whirlwindnews.com.ng, Sunny Igboanugo on Monday, announced the release of a book, detailing his encounter with Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka over issues relating to the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

The book titled: Soyinka’s Metamorphosis, Echoes from the “People’s Mandate,” is a response to an earlier publication by the literary icon titled: Baiting Igbophobia, The Sunny Igboanugo Thesis, where he tackled the journalist over an earlier article relating to the outcome of the 2023 presidential polls.

In a statement announcing the debut of the book, his riposte to Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Igboanugo, while acknowledging the challenges embedded in the profession, some of them life-threatening, explained that his effort was a protest to the course the nonagenarian took on the issue.

He particularly lamented that instead of treating the said article on its merit, Soyinka veered off into ethnic issues, which were never raised therein either directly or through inference, noting that this trend has not only been quite prevalent in the polity today, but posed great danger to Nigeria.

He bemoaned that globally-acclaimed playwright, who had put his immense skill to good use and devoted the larger part of his rewarding life on earth to challenging oppression, advocating human freedom and speaking truth to power would now be associated with this ugly trend, adding it not only underscores a sudden metamorphosis, but traumatic if not heart-rending.

Igboanugo, who detailed some of the travails he encountered in the three decades of practice, including the years of his active advocacy for the struggle to revalidate the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, now confirmed to have been won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, some of them in near brushes with death, vowed that he would neither be intimidated nor succumb to any attempt to deny him his Nigerianness.

Hear him: “None of these, has brought me to the devastating level of distress I experienced in the last few months, since this book by Prof. Soyinka came to my attention. It almost brought me to the state of emotional wreck. The said book, under his INTERVENTION SERIES, was in response to my article of September 19, 2023.

“In the said opinion piece that triggered the mighty pen of the literary giant, I had tried, purely in line of duty, to establish the motive behind the Prof’s posturing about the 2023 presidential election, particularly with reference to Peter Obi and the Labour Party. In expounding my logic, I tried to stay the course, as a professional ought to, never delving into personal attacks or insinuating anything untoward against the revered sage.

“But what did I get in reply? In his riposte via the book, the Prof. only made a scant mention of the content of the article in question. Instead, he devoted the rest to attacking my Igbo identity. Surely, if the sage, had descended on me as a person, if he had reduced me as less than Nebuchadnezzar, as he once labelled, former President Goodluck Jonathan, I would have remained mute and probably continued with my trade the way I know it.

“Reading the book itself, he did exactly that. He treated me to a lavish buffet of his legendary tongue-lashing. But he did not stop at describing my persona in the most terrible terms or attacking my professional competence. For this alone there would not have been any form of contest in the form of a riposte.

“My pain was the attempt by the Prof. to strip me of my identity as a Nigerian and closet me in purely ethnic straightjacket. There was nothing in the original piece from me that suggested any ethnic link by any stroke imagination. The only link I tried to establish was that the NADECO affinity the Nobel Laureate shares with President Bola Tinubu as veterans of the June 12 struggle. My take was that it was the binding factor.

“I tried to explain how, having struggled together through the thick and thin of the NADECO era they had developed the compelling need to watch each other’s back no matter the circumstances. I argued that such relationship would naturally create personal indebtedness too difficult to break.

“That was all my piece was all about. Even though the said article had one or two factual errors which the Prof. did not fail to point out in his book, they did not detract from the texture of the reasoning that formed the basis for holding my views. The emphasis was on the affinity that existed between him and Tinubu.

“I was therefore completely aghast when the Prof. took the issue completely out of context and veered into ethic labelling. That the Prof. would take that route is my idea of a complete metamorphosis. I would not in my wildest imagination assume that the Soyinka of The Man Died fame would descend into such arena occupied by less-endowed in the society. Ordinarily, I would have depended on him to defend my right and freedom to speak my mind. But that did not happen.

“That informed my determination to reply through this effort. I have decided to tell my own story to establish my true identity and insist on it. The content of this book, my own riposte, is to reveal that the Prof. is totally wrong on this.

“In fact, some people still latching on similar ethnic sentiments, tried to dissuade me by pulling up what they advertised as the pro-Biafra sentiments of the Prof. They raised the issue of how he tried to help the Igbo during the civil war advising that I should ignore him.

“That even strengthened my position, because I believe keeping silent would help in strengthening the ethnic slurs that have now become the burden of the Igbo man, because the likes of the Prof. are keeping silent and, in some cases promoting it. Those who read his book will not miss this trend. I believe that such a figure who stood against the bad hand dealt the Igbo people of Biafra at such a young age, should even do more now that age has added more insight and knowledge to him.

“I believe my reply would reactivate his memory and remind him of who he truly is in the history of Nigeria. It was a duty I felt compelled to do. How did the Igbo come into such a plain discourse? So, an Igbo man cannot contribute to any subject in today’s Nigeria without being told from whence he is coming? Even a journalist? This is the essence of this book. This book is therefore a PROTEST!  I am not only protesting with this book as an individual, but to draw global attention to the dangerous trend that has become the lot of Ndigbo today, where they are being deliberately targeted as the culprits to anything that goes wrong in the country.

“I am insisting that nobody can take away my Nigerianess. I am aware that I am a global dwarf compared to the dominating image of Prof. Wole Soyinka globally. I do not compete with him or attempt to do so in any way. His own book, as usual, is already making waves nationally and internationally like many other of his works.

“Mine may make little impact. But whatever impact it makes, even if it is read by one person, I will be glad that someone outside myself would have heard my story. That is why I am happy today. For the first time in months, I have once again regained some level of personal calm. I have told my story, from my little corner of the world space. Let Prof. Wole Soyinka have the world stage, but allow me to have my corner where my voice, no matter how tiny will be allowed to echo. That is my prayer.

“Of course, aside my protest, I have also used this book to try and tell the full story based on my views and how I captured the 2023 general election, particularly that of the presidential polls of February 25. It is a full package that tried to puncture some of the assertions out there in the public domain, including those made by the Nobel Laureate made regarding the election.

“I tried to capture the full sequence of events, their meaning and how they affected the outcome of the election in the most unbiased manner and in the end declared who I believe won the election between Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.   

“In the end, just as I spoke some 31 years ago on June 12, I spoke as professionally as any individual in the book. I shall continue to do so in the future. I spoke yesterday, I am speaking today and I shall speak tomorrow. I shall not only speak as an Igbo, I shall speak as a Nigerian – Nigerian with my full chest. Just like Prof. Wole Soyinka, a Yoruba or Adamu, an Hausa will speak!”